Light & Wonder, Inc. (NASDAQ:LNW) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Light & Wonder, Inc. (NASDAQ:LNW) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $107.36.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Light & Wonder from $107.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Light & Wonder to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Light & Wonder from $108.00 to $100.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $114.00 price objective on shares of Light & Wonder in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, B. Riley started coverage on Light & Wonder in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company.

Light & Wonder Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LNW opened at $93.05 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.90. The company has a market capitalization of $8.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.76. Light & Wonder has a twelve month low of $72.06 and a twelve month high of $115.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $101.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.45.

Light & Wonder (NASDAQ:LNW) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $818.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $798.09 million. Light & Wonder had a net margin of 9.92% and a return on equity of 40.51%. The business’s revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Light & Wonder will post 4.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Light & Wonder declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, August 7th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Light & Wonder by 573.3% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 579,340 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,761,000 after buying an additional 493,295 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Light & Wonder by 121.6% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 14,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,496,000 after buying an additional 7,828 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new position in Light & Wonder during the second quarter valued at about $23,597,000. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Light & Wonder in the second quarter worth about $1,620,000. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Light & Wonder in the first quarter worth about $10,570,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.08% of the company’s stock.

About Light & Wonder

Light & Wonder, Inc operates as a cross-platform games company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Gaming, SciPlay, and iGaming segments. The Gaming segment sells game content and gaming machine; video gaming terminals; video lottery terminals, including conversion kits and spare parts; and table products, including automatic card shufflers, deck checkers, table roulette chip sorters and other land-based table gaming equipment.